Song of A Midnight Place
by Alicorn
Summary: Years after the Fraggle Rock series the gang finds that the more things change the more they stay the same, and that with darkness comes light and love. Mokey/Boober, Red/Gobo. FINISHED!
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

This whole idea came about when I was asked the question about if Mokey and Boober should get together. I said..well, you will find out later . But it all ties into my own idea about the future of the lifes of the main fraggles years after the show ended. Some may say I take it too seriously, but the way I see it the future of Mokey most of all is more than a bit depressing. And yet, keeping the fraggles true to themselfs, they are always able to find happiness in the small things, and know that with darkness there is light...

_**Song Of A Midnight Place **_

By Alicorn (aka Redsonga aka Alicornmoon )

**Prologue**

The design seemed to be far too perfect to be natural and yet, at the same time, something somehow born of the world itself.

The rock-formation of a lotus flower with three lonely petals reaching up toward the unseen sky beyond the stone ceiling looked as if they were carved from a prism of magical fabric.

If a passerby was to look closer however, they would have found that the colors actually came from a collection of ordinary pebbles. Blue starfoot, clear white weedring, and rare rubysend rocks, were all intently woven together with doozer glue, were polished bright by the hands of time upon the marker.

Even at its base, a small patch of snowdrop flowers grew on with a silent dignity of having once been faithfully cared for…

All this could be seen by any creature that passed by with even a bit of artistic wonder. But even the sharpest eye would have to be very quick to notice the slip of weathered paper tied tightly to the central petal of the lone headstone inscribed deeply with the fraggle lettering of 'Cantus'.

The paper was marked with a much neater fraggle hand in what had once be brighter shades of berry juice ink:

_The leaf,_

_the leaf,_

_the one leaf,_

_from its place on high_

_it falls down, down_

_to die._

_In death as in life_

_The song of a midnight place,_

_Sings_

_I love you._


	2. Chapter 2

The colorful berry ink mosaic wallpaper that decorated the small , dank, nook of a hole in the ground was a wonder to beyond

. A wonder that is, if anyone was not running and playing and otherwise whipping though the fraggle rock caves. Since nearly all fraggles did this by nature all their lifes, the artistic merit of the wall was left unnoticed, save for the watchful eyes of Boober.

Secretly, this was just as the little green fraggle liked it.

Inhaling the steam from the pot that was now shimmering beneath his wooden spoon with an almost merry bubbling sound, he raised his head slowly.

His gaze fell upon the wallpaper, which actually was a collection of single pages of parchment all lined up neatly together. Each page had no words printed upon them but as a simple picture, nearly a living travel history of every living thing in the rock:

Here a doodle of a flying dreedlebug , there a profile of a lily at night, and every dozen pictures or so a group doodle of five smiling fraggles together, done in a little bit more skilled hand each time.

Boober paused for a moment in turn at the profile of two flying birds weaving together a ribbon, and much farther down, the outline of an egg with green spots, colored in with soft blue watercolor.

His eyes trailed down to the newest looking paper, a bird flying though inky black darkness.

Boober sighed softly, turning his red furred head back to the business of his pot.

Suddenly a loud shrill voice rang out, nearly making him dunk his nose into the burning stew.

"Boober? Boober Where in the rock did that little…?"

A set of ginger red pigtails tailed into view from the doorway, followed soon after by their owners sunny yellow face. Which was at this moment smiling bright enough to light up the whole rock.

"Oh, there you are!" She continued, trotting in with was pace that would make a gorg dizzy.

Boober sighed again, this was the deeper more practiced sigh of the two. The sort of sigh, he admitted , he was getting a bit too use to using as the years went by. Still. He did try his best to talk…

"Oh hello Red, be careful I just…"

"Hey Boober guess what I just got from outer spaaa!"

The young fraggle slid halfway across the kitchen, and fell head over tail, ending her trip with a painful sounding crash.

"….Waxed the floor."

A pitiful whimper of a voice trailed up from the ground.

"I can see that. Why are..you..so extra clean..all of a sudden?"

"I just want everything to look nice for Mokey when she comes home. Something you could have been helping me with you know." He added, pointing his wooden spoon in Red's direction.

"Oh, that's a great welcome home present, " Red said, grunting as she tried to get a better hold on the broom she had found to keep herself upright.

'Hello Mokey, fancy not seeing you for the last five years, so sorry about you lifemate, here, step into my parlor and break your neck!"

Red said a quickly before the old broom gave way and sent her into another face-plant with the floor.

"Hmm. Maybe I did use a bit too much polish."

"I'll say…Anyway, I just got a new new..letter..from Gobo… and Wembley."

"What did they ?...ACK!" He yelped as Red grabbed him around the waist trying to steady herself and only succeeded in taking him down to.

With great effort Boober craned his neck up slowly to come eye to eye with the offending Red.

"You do realize if I wasn't in so much pain I'd force you to _finally read a whole one these yourself_ don't you?" He spat

"Yes. Don't care. Read!" Red barked with her usual good manners.

"All right, all right. "Dear Red," Oh he's writing right to you now is he? What…"

"Please just read the card already…"

A polaroid photo overlooking Niagara Falls was papercliped to the top of the letter, showing Gobo sitting on a railing bravely and waving, only half of the scene viewable thanks to a telltale thumbprint over the lens.

" _Dear Red,_

_You won't believe what we found the other day: the end of outer space!_

_It's a magical, wonderful place where all the water of all the fraggle ponds go to crash over the edge!_

_The oddest part about it is that the falling water makes a mist that seems to act like a love potion for silly creatures!_

_Whenever they come near the edge, all the couples stop to hug and kiss._

_Even Wembley got kissed by one of them, I think he was a little upset when we had to leave her._

_Our little guy really is growing up!_

_We look forward to coming home for our yearly break, it will be great having the whole gang together again…If Mokey gets back before we do tell her hi for us!_

_Love,_

_Gobo & Wembley_

_P.S. Red I think… "_

"..and thaaat's enough! Thank you Boober." Red said in a suddenly rushed tone, snatching the letter from Boobers hands from where she now stood above him.

"A little bit secretive are we?" Boober said, a rare playful tone in his voice.

"None of your beeswax!" Red said, crumbling the letter to her chest protectively, and holding up the attached photo to the light with an annoyed grumble "Why does Wembley always put his hand over the lifemirror?"

" Fine, fine. I really should be watching this stew."

"Oh no not Steeu ….!" Red's last comment trailed off from the inside of the cave as she was jettisoned into the distance in her attempt to cross the floor again.

"And maybe put down nice entryway rug." Boober added to himself.

With a grunt of effort Boober lifted an old, worn, dirty looking length of ivory carpet up to drape it over a ridge of stalagmates, and began to thump it with a rug beater.

As he hit it he started to hum to the beat:

_**"A place for everything, and everything in its place"**_

A tiny troop of dusty looking bunnies appeared from under the carpet, giving an angry chatter before running out of the hole.

_**"That's what makes a home just so."**_

The bunnies made a sharp u-turn farther down the passageway, away from the telltale crashing sounds that told that Red to was cleaning in her own way.

_**"No one telling you what to do, having your own space…"**_

She wiped her brow after tossing barbells, books, and assorted swim-wear junk over her shoulder and into the closet in a flurry of movement.

_**"That's what makes home the place beee!"**_

Red shrieked seeing a leftover plate of something that use to be food sprout legs and walk bold as brass across the floor.

Boober paused lost in thought as the two sang in unison.

_**"At least that's what I use to think, but now I'm not so sure,"**_

Red flopped down exhausted into her hammock.

_**"..could home not be just a place, but a little more?**_

_**"Home might be feeling."**_ Red sang softly, gazing at the letter.

_**"It might only be a wishful memory…"**_ Boober added sadly.

_**"Could he be home to me?"**_ She sang to the photo.

_**"Could she be home to me?"**_ He asked the drawings upon the wall.

"_**Does he know… that he is home… to me?**_" Red ended the song, still with the letter in hand.

The last section was written very neatly and carefully.

_"Red, I think about you everyday. I really miss you."_


	3. Chapter 3

The two shadows made their in the midnight darkness with a silent certain pace that showed a long history of having traveled by night without a lantern. Ever forth step or so the larger shadow of the two had to stop and let the smaller catch up with a hopping pace.

But all and all they were making a good graceful progress, as they finally stepped into the great hall.

Suddenly, a bright wave of light bathed the room, and a shout of 'Surprise!' sent the smaller figure ducking under the biggers' heavy traveling robe.

The tall lilac colored fraggle blinked and rubbed her eyes at the vision of several hundred grinning fraggles in their pajamas come to greet her.

"Oh my, good evening and morning everyone!"

"Welcome home Mokey!" The crowd replied, all bowing low with great respect as in the same moment the World's 2nd Oldest Fraggles' right hand fraggle was gently prodding her and her slightly bulging robe onto the makeshift stage overlooking the pond.

Her eyes lit up would they came across the sight of Red and Boober standing in the first row. Red of course was hopping up and down with excitement before Boober grabbed her tail tightly to bring her back down to earth.

"It is with great pleasure," The World's 2nd Oldest Fraggle began with a cough "That we welcome back home Mokey The Minstrel."

Many fraggles waved and Red resumed her hopping, nearly dislocating Boobers' arm.

Mokey nodded in reply, the tiny metallic ribbons in her back length hair catching the light.

"And we humbly request, not in anyway meant to disrespect the trade of the memory of her lifemate Cantus."

At this, everyone but Mokey, who remained oddly still, looked to the floor sadly and a mummer of 'Moon rest his soul' echoed.

It ended with the graveled voice of the 2nd Oldest Fraggle.

"That is, we would very much like it if you would take on the title of our humble rocks' storyteller."

Mokey cleared her throat softly as the crowd leaned forward.

"I heard of your need some time ago and I would be honored to be your new storyteller."

A yell went up that nearly made the startled fraggle fall over.

"All right then, let the ceremony began!" Their leader shouted " Bring out the robe!"

Mokey looked to one side and then the other as two fraggles came up behind her and wrapped a white enbordered robe over her traveling clothing.

The melody that was welling up from the hall was a soft music box chorus:

_**"Oh storyteller, storyteller, could you tell me a story?"**_

The circle of fraggles asked, Boober at their head.

_**"'Oh I'd be delighted' the storyteller replied."**_ Mokey sang in a light tone

She leaned in a bit in the direction of Boober, and poked his nose gently.

_**"I'd tell of the giant glopigor and its love of parsley pudding."**_

Boober put a hand to his nose slightly before the crowd welled up around him to sing in merry triumph.

_**"Oh hear ye our storyteller, with her tales of beast!"**_

The circle shifted, now with Red as the leader.

_**"Oh storyteller, storyteller, could you tell me a story?"**_

Mokey curtseyed politely to them all.

_**"Oh I'd be delighted, the storyteller said."**_

She mimicked a solder marching in place.

_**"I'd tell of Brave Sir Comageese, the fraggle with the least,"**_

She formed a set of imaginary jaws with her hands and weaved them with an air of horror in Red's direction.

_**" ..who to escape his encounter with the Three Eyed Mild Melter had to cut off his own tail."**_

The crowd whooped and went back to dancing in its ring, this time not stopping.

"_**Oh hear ye, our storyteller with her tales of historic gore!**_

_**Oh storyteller, oh storyteller, tell us a story, tell a story, just one more!"**_

_**Yes certainly, which story would you like read?" **_She asked.

_**"A bedtime story,"**_ They chorused ending with the lone voice of the worlds 2nd oldest fraggle _**"..so all we sleepy fraggles can get back to bed!"**_

With that last note all the gathering of fraggles quickly scattered back into the caves from where they came, leaving only half of the candles burning.

The soft embers bathed the three remaining fraggles in a warm glow like an indoor sunset.

"I have to admit, they're very honest." Mokey mused to herself.

"Mokey!" Red exploded in a wave of emotion, hugging her old friend with a force that nearly knocked the taller fraggle over.

"Red! Oh I missed you so much!" Mokey replied, hugging her and grasping her friends hands, starting a long ago practice of skipping in place with gee.

"I missed you too!" Red agreed.

"I have so much to talk to you about!"

"Me to! " Red replied taking in a huge breath before starting to talk a mile a minute "The all rock swimming finals and Doc's new piping and the gorgs…"

Mokey's attention was swayed as she felt a familiar set of arms hugging her around the middle from behind.

She reached back to hold one of them softly.

"Boober."

The smaller fraggle buried his nose into the fabric of the white cloak at the sound of her voice.

'M..mokey..I..that is.." Boober's voice came at a wavering whisper "I..oh Mokey I missed how..always...you're…"

"Oh Boober." Mokey laughed, turning around to use both hands to prop up his shoulders and face in turn.

"You don't know what its been like," Boober's voice strengthened a bit.

"..spending months and months alone with…_that_." He ended, gesturing in Red's direction.

"Hey, what am I, a sick batworm?" Red fumed.

"See what I mean?" Boober lowered his voice.

" I think she's given me a compulsion, I really do."

"Dear, that sounds very serious." Mokey said, equally low.

"It is." He concluded.

"Now wait a second ," Red said, stomping a foot "… you know tons of other fraggles who…"

"Oh I nearly forgot you two, I brought you presents" Mokey interjected quickly before things got out of hand.

"Yay! Presentspresentspresents!..." The little yellow fraggle shouted, holding out her hands greedily "What are they?"

"They're from the fraggles of Northwest rock,"

Mokey spoke as she dug into the inner sleeve of her traveling cloak "They live right near the surface of outer space, you can hear silly creatures as they walk right over!"

Boober's face was wide with wonder but Red was simply still making 'give me' motions with her fingers.

"I thought of you when I saw these Red, they have a very free spirited aura."

Mokey produced two ten inch lengths of bright prism cut pink christmas ribbon.

"Golly, look at them sparkle, these are so cool!" Red snatched them away and began to retie her pigtails with them with a doozer like vigor.

"Thank you!" She added as an afterthought.

"And for you Boober..I'm sorry if this isn't the right size,"

Mokey reached deeper into a hidden pocket and came back out with a gold colored soup ladle.

"It's made of something the Wester fraggles call 'Cop-per'."

Boober took the small cooking utensil in his hands slowly and carefully, as if he was afraid it would brake at any moment.

" It's the most beautiful thing …I've ever seen." He said tearfully, resuming his former place hugging her back like a living magnet.

Mokey laughed, it was a sound that seemed oddly worn out around the edges.

"I'm so glad you both…"

"ACK!" Boober yelped, recoiling back from Mokey's form as something moving poked out at him.

"The storyteller robe, it's alive!" Red exclaimed, halfway though tying her second ribbon.

"Don't worry Mokey I'll protect you!"

Boober yelled in the heat of the moment, brandishing his new ladle like a club and holding it over the moving spot.

"..Filthy germ infested thing probably hasn't be washed in years…"

"NonoBoober!" Mokey shouted, "Don't worry, its okay."

Both fraggles gathered near the front of their friend in curiously, their tails wagging silently in lazy curls.

"Red, Boober, I'd like to introduce a very special gift the sky gave to me some time ago."

Mokey said in a warm way that betrayed deep emotion.

"I'd like you to meet Poppy…my son."

Mokey opened her rode slowly with a soft mummer of 'it's okay'.

The tiny hand gripping her leg was soon followed by a pair of bright black eyes, wide with wonder under a patch of light yellow hair. As if considering the group of older fraggles before him he fidgeted ever so slowly, itching the back of one leg with a mismatched polka-dot socked foot, and putting his free thumb in his mouth.

Boobers own mouth was agap in silent awe from a short distance.

"Oh Mokey, he's absolutely _adorable_!" Red gasped, reaching out slowly to greet the little rose colored fraggle.

Poppy gasped in fright, his pink fur frizzing up a little under his blue overall style shirt as he ducked behind his mothers leg again, making the silver buckles on his shoulders jiggle.

"I didn't know you and…" Red paused softly as if catching herself in mid-thought. "…hatched an egg!."

"Didn't you read the drawing letters I sent?" Mokey asked, holding one of Poppy's hands now in reassurance.

"Ummm.." Red said, suddenly very interested in the ground.

"I tried to show them to her, but she would never sit still!" Boober shot out in a lordly tone.

"Well, sooorry!" Red shot back pointing a finger at the smaller fraggles midsection. "If you weren't always trying to force me to eat your rotten cooking every time…"

The tearful whimper of a baby fraggle made the two stop dead in their tracks.

"Don't cry, don't cry, see ?" Boober said softly, putting an arm around Red " Red and I weren't really fighting."

Red shook her head with a cheery fake smile.

"Weren't you now?" Mokey asked with a giggle "Well, it might be best if we all got a good nights sleep."

"Oo, oo!" Red remarked, grabbing the trim of Mokey's robe and starting to lead her down the tunnel. Mokey walked with a limp slowly, thanks to the still attached Poppy.

"You guys can stay in my cave, I cleaned it up extra good!"

Boober shrugged his shoulders with an flabbergasted sigh, trailing behind them along the cave path.


	4. Chapter 4

The early afternoon sunlight poured happily into the very common looking hole in the wall. The other side of the hole was a very uncommon cave landscape of a dark purple tone, that almost seemed to be singing.

This tranquility was broken by the sound on the other side of a phone being hung up with a satisfied 'clang' and the voice of an elderly man.

"Sprocket, you'll never guess who that was!" The voice started, old but still full of life and piece of mind. "Ned Shimmelfinney's nephew. He said his son would love to adopt one of the puppies!"

The mournful howl of an even older sounding dog ended with a whimper that sent many smaller barks and snarls to life in the air.

"Oh, don't make that sound Sprocket, " He mumbled, the dogs objection sounding as if it had great effect. "You know we can't keep six puppies, there's just not enough food and love to go around."

More whimpering was Sprockets' only reply.

"Things have to happen when its time even if they do make us sad…"

The sound of a pet door opening and closing seemed to end his train of thought.

"Oh, hello Gobo , Wembley! So nice to see you made it back safe and sound!"

"Hi Doc!" A small but very well spoken voice replied.

"Hello!" An also small cheerful voice added in. "Gee, it's great to be.. ! EEP! What are _these_?"

A sudden storm of yelps, barks, and slurping sounds filled the room beyond the hole.

"Oh no, down everyone down!" Doc yelled over the din "Sprocket if you can't keep your brood from troubling the fraggles, I'm putting all of you out into the yard, I mean it! Oh, if only Marigold wasn't at the vet…"

The thunderous sound of many sets of puppy feet following the light mouse like gate of two fraggles ended with a giant thump against the hole that was half covered by a heavy box.

Gobo and Wembley stood on ether side of the entrance, trying to catch their breath.

"Wowwee, those sure are... a lot of ..babies Sprocket has…" Gobo said, wiping his brow with his brown bomber hat.

"Ick," Wembley remarked, wiping his light green face with the side of a small travel sticker covered knapsack ."I just know they were trying to eat me, tasting me like that…"

"Wembley, they weren't tasting you," Gobo laughed " That's just their way of saying hello."

"Well, it's pretty weird and slimy anyway.." Wembley grumbled, walking ahead of his friend just a bit before a bright silver sight caught his eye.

"Wow, look at the shiny new pipes Doc put in!" He said in wonder, moving around the other side to get a better view.

"He must have done that when we were gone." Gobo said, not looking up from something he had just pulled from his sack which had a 'live animals' label lovely taped onto its back.

The outside of the tiny leather booklet he held was stamped with a US seal.

"I meant to tell him how well this pass-ports thing he gave us worked."

"I'll say, " Wembley laughed, walking with long strides as he glanced backward. "I'll never forget the look on that ladies face when you showed her that life-mirror picture on…"

A heavy clang sound of flesh meeting steel piping made Gobo wince.

Wembley groaned, rubbing his head and quickly going around the low running pipe.

"One's here now too ?.." He sighed, still rubbing his head thoughtfully. "You know, I did kind of miss it, I think it helps my hair grow or something.."

Gobo grinned, shaking his head as he finally caught up.

"It's nice to hear you sounding like yourself Wembley," He said, patting the younger fraggles' banana tree shirt covered shoulder. " I was a little worried for a while there, from the moods you've been in.."

"Moods? Naa, you don't have to worry about me Gobo" Wembley said, puffing out his chest bravely, before quickly thinking the better of it and stinking back down. "..unless you really want to, that's okay to…"

"Wembley, Wembley, Wembley.." Gobo laughed as they began the long trek back to fraggle rock " What am I ever going to do with you?"

------------------------------------------------------

The laundry space of Boobers cozy hole was alive with bubbles.

The spears caught the light in rainbow prisms as Red playfully blew one thought the air in Poppy's direction. The little fraggle tried to reach out to grab it from where he sat, only to see it break a breath away.

Red giggled and made a funny face as Boober heated up bath water in the background.

"My name is Red. " She said slowly , pointing at herself in front of the toddler. "Can you say 'Red'?"

Poppy put a hand to his mouth and chewed seriously, a line of drool escaping the side. Finally, after a long pause he rewarded her efforts with a quiet:

"Ed."

Somewhere over her shoulder Red could hear the sound of Boober trying very hard not to say anything.

Nooo..' Red corrected "Not Ed..Red! Can you say Auntie Red?"

"Aunt..ie Ed?" Poppy answered, reaching out both arms in a silent plea to be picked up.

"Aww!" Red cooed, helpless but to agree.

Scooping the little fraggle, she spun them both around in dizzy circles before finally tiring of the game. They both fell over in a rain of giggles onto the floor at the same time Boober cut in.

"The bathwater's ready. Oh Mokey, you're back!"

Mokey walked in carrying an armful of greenery.

"What a nice clear day it is! I had to get lemon-grass, it's his favorite bath scent…"

Her eyes scanned the room in a worried gaze.

"Oh? Where are Poppy and Red?"

"I think Auntie Ed is permanently melted into a maternal puddle of goo..." Boober reported, trying his best to sound serious as he pointed with a soap-covered hand. "They're down there."

"Red, how in the world did you play yourself out already?"

"I guess… I'm just… talented!" Red heaved, handing Poppy off to his mother.

"Oh Mokey, he talked!" Red announced.

"Well, of course he talks!" Mokey laughed " His first word was..a year ago…"

"My mom always said my first word was 'swim'…" Red said, twisting the hair on her tail-tip in a vain attempt to sit still. "What was yours Boober? You remember it?"

"Dysentery." Boober said flatly.

"What? That couldn't be...That's not even a real word!" Red shouted, and then stopped as if hit by a thought.

"Say Mokey, how old is Poppy anyhow?"

"You would know if you read letters more often…" Boober commented mostly to himself.

"Why don't you ask him?" Mokey replied "How many are you Poppy?"

Poppy didn't hesitate at all this time, proudly presenting two fingers of each hand pressed together.

"Four years old and talking! Very advanced." Boober commented, tossing the lemon-grass into the tub.

"Yeah, I was six when I started…" Red said in a thoughtful tone.

"You know your numbers to, don't you, Sweetwater?" Mokey said, beginning to sing softly:

_**Give me one and give me two, cover me with muck and goo...**_

Poppy quickly put up two fingers, mouthing the word.

Red jumped into the song loudly.

_**Give me three and give me four, cover me with guck and gore!**_

Poppy slowed, not use to the sound of Red's singing voice, but put up a spirited four fingers as both fraggles broke into song:

_**One, two, muck and goo!**_

_**Down my sock and in my shoe.**_

_**Three, four, guck and gore,**_

_**Spin me 'round and sing some more!**_

Boober was already bobbing his head to one side as he sang, dumping Poppy into the soapy water, clothing and all.

_**Give me five and give me six, Cover me with big, fat sticks.**_

Poppy shook himself, standing up in the knee high water and wigging all six of his fingers as the adults all sang in chorus.

_**Give me seven, give me eight. Cover me with slime and slate!**_

The little fraggle looked puzzled for a moment, having run out of fingers.

_**Five, six and big, fat sticks!...**_

Suddenly, as if an idea had stuck he began to tug at one of his now soggy socks, finally tugging it off, before falling over with a splash.

_**..an ice cream cone for me to lick!**_

_**Seven, eight, slime and slate,**_

_**Sing it now and don't be late.**_

Every was so taken in by the baby fraggle wiggling his toes as he continued to count on them that they did not notice two familiar looking figures appearing in the doorway. The taller one put a finger to his lips and motioned to the smaller as they crept up to stand just behind the group.

_**Give me, give me number nine, A bag of bones and a ball of twine!**_

Mokey sang happily.

_**Give me, give me number ten, Run back home and start again!**_

Red nearly shouted, hopping up happily, only to have a set of hands cover her eyes from behind. She turned in that moment to see Gobo as he in Wembley suddenly joined in the ending of the song.

_**Nine, nine, a ball of twine!**_

_**First it's yours and then it's mine!**_

_**Ten, ten, that's the end!**_

Red sang with the others, giving Gobo a big bear-hug.

_**So run back home and start again!**_

_**Run back home and start again!**_

Poppy clapped with glee as the cave still rang with the memory of the five voices together.


	5. Chapter 5

Red was still hugging Gobo and hadn't realized the song had stopped a moment ago, relieving words that certainly were not lyrics.

"...And I thought you would never come home, so I was tying the fish to Sprockets tail and had almost got under the door when…"

Both fraggles suddenly felt three intently puzzled gazes fixed upon them. Red blushed a partially radish shade and drew away from the hug, while Gobo awkwardly cleared his throat.

"We're back everyone!" Wembley broke into the silence with a yell, darting among the group with a shower of comments

"Oh, Mokey, you grew out your hair more! It's real pretty."

"Are those new ribbons Red? How's the fraggle pond? "

"It's really doing great! We just…" Red trailed off as the even more energetic Wembley hopped over to Boober.

"Hiya Boober! You know, Gobo found out the silly creatures use doozer dust for bleach. I brought you some!"

"Why thank you Wembley..I think." Boober replied as most of the loose dry bleach that had been shoved into his hands sifted though his fingers.

"Oh, Gobo, you look so distinguished!" Mokey said, dwarfing him with her own sudden hug. "You know, you look just as I thought you would,"

Mokey rambled as Gobo gasped for breath at the tight embrace "I saw you in a dream once you know, you were climbing a great mountain and.."

She finally noticed her friends lack of oxygen, letting go quickly "..Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"That's okay Mokey," Gobo said rubbing his tender neck. "It's been such a long time. We all missed you."

"I missed you the most." Wembley chimed in.

"That's very sweet Wembley." Mokey replied politely.

Red arched a taken aback brow at the start of this odd conversation.

"Yup, I missed you the most, the others didn't even care half as much." Whembly added with a self righteous nod.

At this Red's brow was arched to it's limit and Boobers bottom jaw was hanging in shock, as Mokey stammered for a reply and found none.

Gobo motioned the three into a huddle away from the smaller green fraggle, who seemed to have turned his attention to a pie cooling on the stovetop.

"He's been like this for almost a month off and on," Gobo spoke in a whisper that was partly overshadowed by the sound of a blueberry pie being noisily devoured. " Really crazy and fixed on himself sometimes and well..You girls had better be especially careful what you say to him is all."

"No, Wembley? Of all fraggles?" Boober added in " But its so rare, only one out of ninety of us ever go though it."

"I know, weird isn't it?"

" We just stay who we are, live whatever passes for life, hatch eggs and die! We don't even need it anymore!" Boober said gesturing with his hand wildly.

"Well, I'm just glad it only lasts two months…Poor Wembley.."

"A victim of a most terrible condition." Boober agreed.

Red had all this time been fixing them with a blank puzzled stare, while Mokey simply nodded now and again.

"Um.." Red began "Are you two talking in some weird boy code I should know about?"

"Red, you see sometimes when…" Mokey started, but was cut off by Gobo very quickly.

"Oh, no..it's nothing." Gobo said sheepishly, turning is attention to the small pink form that had, as they were talking, been trying with some success to escape his bathtub confinement.

"Aw, who's the little ankle bitter eh?" Gobo said, giving the tiny pink fraggles head a tussle.

"He's Mokey's right? Just like it said in the picture letter.." Whembly added in with his berry shaded face.

"You read the picture letter?" Red said in disbelief.

"Sure we did, didn't everybody?" Gobo laughed.

Somewhere to the side Red's pigtails seemed to wilt.

"I've been waiting especially for him to meet you Gobo, after all a good teacher…" Mokey began, rubbing her dripping offspring with a fluffily towel that in the end made his body fur look like a ball of cotton candy.

"Poppy, these are your uncles Gobo and Wembley." Mokey said, handing the newly dried ball of fluff that was her son to Gobo.

"Uncle eh? Well, welcome to the gang little guy! Here…"

Gobo took off his brown leather bomber hat, putting it on Poppy's head only to have it fall over his eyes.

"If your going to tackle an adventure as big as life, you're gonna need a hat."

Poppy pulled up the hat brim halfway off his head and made a grab for Wembley's long nose.

"Hey, we have the same color hair!" Whembly exclaimed. "You know only the best fraggles have yellow hair."

Red rolled her eyes. It was going to be a very long month…

* * *

The whispers that echoed though the deserted main hall were soft in the early morning air that seeped though the cracks of the rock.

"Do you think they suspect anything?"

"Nah, I don't think so. But Mokey will talk my ear off with a million of her poems if she ever..."

"I have a feeling Wembley would to. Not with poems, but you know, he has his own way…"

Red leaned over to lay her head on Gobo's shoulder as the thick mist upon fraggle pond began to rang with the light sleepy sound of frogs welcoming the day.

"Every time there's a storm out or a rock shake I'm always afraid you're in it, you know? That you fell down and…"

"Aw, Red, you don't have to worry about me. There's lots of places in outer space to hide in..And, well, Wembley's the best runner in all the universe when he puts his mind to it..Why, he's dragged me out of more…"

"I don't care about ol' Wembley running! Outer space is dangerous and you're out there taking stupid risks and I..worry..I miss you."

"I miss you to."

Gobo stared of into the distance as if contemplating some invisible landscape and then dropped his gaze to his feet. Red did the same in the opposite direction, kicking her hanging feet against the outside rock of the pond and leaded back to trail her tail in the water.

The frogs calls began to grow in number, setting the scene to a soft Jamaican beat.

Uncertainly, Gobo began to sing, his voice waving at bit at the first few words:

_**"Red we've always been friends, that much is true.**_

_**But could that change if you want it…"**_

_**"..to?"**_ Red finished in song " Why Gobo you know that I…"

She reached out for his slowly.

Suddenly, the sound of an over energetic mob of early raising Fraggles came whipping into the hall.

"Hey everybody, it's the Great Traveling Gobo!" Their leader Rumple Fraggle , yelled. "Tell us about the silly creatures flying beasts!"

With a loud 'AK!' of protest Gobo was hailed up onto the crowds shoulders and carried away to background of their loud ringing phase.

At this same moment Red had been reaching for him and the sudden whack of a tail sent her tumbling into the pond.

* * *

The steadily faster beat of the frogs carried into the frustrating moving monologue of the next few days for both fraggles...

The hanging glass of the Crystal Cavern painted a brilliant glow upon the walls as the two sat on a cliffside high above an overgrown hiking trail.

"We should be safe here…" Gobo began.

_**"Red the stars in the heavens, the birds in sky**_

_**I'd give them all to you if you'd tell me…"**_

_**"Why? Oh Gobo I could…"**_

"Fancy meeting you up here! Hey look everyone!" "Oh Gobo, tell us about the stone people!"

The line of cave climbing fraggles that had just appeared out of nowhere from above pulled Gobo away into their moving line. This made the again leaning over Red, with no other body to steady her, fall into a partially nasty looking patch of thistles far below.

Red, barely able to pull her scratched and bleeding head up to rest on her equally injured arms whimpered.

_**"..just cry.**_" She finished

* * *

The cave that had once been Gobo and Wembley's was heavy with the smell and taste of dust from sitting unused for so long.

"Are you sure this is a good place?" Red asked with disbelief, the many bandages upon her face moving when she wrinkled her nose.

"Of course, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Since we're staying in the guest of honor cave no one will think of looking for me here.." Gobo smiled.

"_**Red, the caves are a nest-house for my heart the dove,**_

Gobo reached out to take Red's hands in his own as he rushed though the last line for fear of being interrupted.

"_**..Who flies very quickly to speak of..."**_

_**"Of…?"**_ Red breathed, closing her eyes slowly. The notes of the song slowed down and died into stillness as if the cave itself was holding its breath in this one warm moment..of the two fraggles drawing nearer to one another…and…

"Hiya guys! Whatya doing in this old place?" Wembley's voice cut into the room like a blow-horn from where he stood in the doorway.

"Nothing Wembley…" Both his friends chorused with a sigh, quickly sitting a respectful distance from one another again.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ooooow!"

The mess of tangled ginger orange hair that had once been a certain fraggles pride and joy wailed again, sending pebbles tumbling off the sides of the small room.

Mokey, comb in hand, backed away for a moment to let her friend fuss before resuming the slow and painstaking job of brushing out burrs.

"Ooo, Mokey, that hurts!" Red whined, suddenly reaching backward. "Here, give it here!" She snapped, wrenching the comb from the taller lilac colored fraggles grasp and sitting back in her hammock.

"You must be doing it wrong…You see you just…" Red tried to run the comb though the back of her hair from the roots downward as Mokey watched intently.

"..and then you gotta…" Red added, flipping the whole mass of burr laced hair over her face and trying to comb from the ends inward feebly before collapsing backward with a tearful groan.

"Red? What's wrong?" Mokey asked in a helpful tone.

"It hurts just as much when I do it!" Red sobbed into her pillow, throwing the offending piece of caved quartz onto the floor.

"There, there. All it needs is a few hours and it will be a good as new. You'll see." Mokey said, picking up the abandoned comb and getting back to work.

The gurgled murmurs of the sleeping Poppy in his corner basket sweeped over the room again like a claiming melody.

"Are you sure you weren't practicing tap dance sky driving near the needle patch?" Mokey asked softy again.

"No!" Red mumbled nervously. "I..I told you. I was just..um, walking by and fell in…"

Mokey's eyes shown glossy black as she stopped in mid-brush.

"Did he… use the dove/love… rhyming scheme?"

A heavy feeling settled over the room as Mokey gazed as the motionless back of her friend. Suddenly, the yellow fraggle sat up sharply with a squeal like an over caffeinated cork from a bottle.

"He did! Oh my gosh Mokey it was so romanic!"

She laughed grabbing her friend's hands in glee as they both started to jump up and down, to her words blurred out at record pace, and Mokey's reply spoken just as quickly in a happy blur.

"..and every time I was trying to sing my rhymed reply to the love words someone would come along and..but you should have seen him Mokey he was so…"

"Oh, Gobo is so traditional with his rhymes. ..Above/love is nice to, or alcove/love but dove/love fits Gobo's song aura just right, so direct and straight forward like an oak tree in a…"

"Waitaminute, how did you know? About Gobo and me?" Red snapped to a halt, fixing Mokey with an accusing gaze.

"Oh Red, you're glowing with a light of the universe that all that breathes can see!" Mokey laughed, rocking and humming her half awakened son back to sleep.

"Really?" Red looked down at her hand in perplexed wonder. "I don't look any different…Honestly Mokey, your starting to make as much sense as…"

"As who?" Mokey asked, pausing to rub the dry soil in the pot that had long ago contained Lanford with a dreamy look.

"Nobody." Red replied, chewing on her top lip as if to contain unspoken comments.

"Who do I remind you of?" Mokey asked again to the young fraggles face, only to have her turn away, still chewing on her lip and gripping her ginger tipped tail defiantly.

"Red are you and the others trying not to talk to me about something?"

Mokey returned to sitting on her old bed, looking intently at the artwork she had taken off the walls hours before as if their pictures contained something in a book that had she had not read in a very long time.

"Nobody..Nothing…You'll be moving into the storyteller cave tomorrow…it's great that you are all mystical like..that is, none of us would ever be caught dead making you feel.." Red whipped her hands over her mouth, symphonic tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

"What makes you feel like you can't talk about death around me?"

Mokey's point blank question seemed to be the direct opposite of what her friend had been expecting.

Red cocked her head at a lazy angle, trying her best to keep her normally sharp tone out of her next words.

"Well, it's just..you know since your…since…a year ago when…"

"Cantus died?" Mokey finished the sentence calmly.

Red gulped, not knowing what to expect now that the long forbidden words among her circle of friends had been spoken, by the very fraggle they had sworn never to speak them around!

"Oh Red, that was a year and seven months ago." Mokey said in her usual sunny soft tone that seemed to send Red reeling even more. "It's just a part of life, we all grow and then we die. It's unfraggley to hang onto that sadness."

"You mean you're not even a little sad?" Red blurted out in disbelief. "You weren't even when it happened? "

Mokey shook her head, smiling just a bit to brightly. "He was an elder, it was his time. It would be unfraggley of me to expect that he would have…"

"But Mokey, it's unfraggley not to be sad.." Red said, flopping down on the last remaining bare space on the bed. "If I had been you, and that had been Gobo…"

"Well it wasn't you was it?" Mokey said in her same usual tone, her hands gripping tightly onto a small pile of paintings on her lap. "I'd really appreciate if you would just…"

"But Mokey if you never be truly sad you can't ever be really happy…"

"I…am..happy…" Mokey spoke, inhaling with a dark and heavy sound as she stood up, her long aqua hair partly shadowing her eyes. " I'm always happy, but I guess my oldest dearest best friend in the whole rock is really too immature to understand after all…"

Mokey finished with a sob her walk turning into a run as she whipped out into the hallway and her form disappeared in the inky night

"What? _Immature_? What do you mean? Mokey? Mokey?" Red called into the darkness. "Mokey? I'm sorry..I'm..sorry.."

Red sat doubled over in the archway, only to be joined a moment later by a sleepy looking powder pink toddler fraggle who yawned and cuddled against her side, sucking on his thumb quietly.

* * *

The night was so deep and black that it looked as if the ditizes themselves had gone to sleep, leaving the whole world of the rock to be warped in a blanket of colorless nothingness. That was, in all places but the fraggle pond.

The silvery moon, that had many hours ago been the guest of honor at the moon greeting, still shone bright and clearly, like a silver beacon inhabiting the water.

The walls and ceiling around the pond reflected this same brilliance dimly, bathing the whole enclosure in a light blue tone just barely strong enough to make out surrounding shapes by..or rather a shape.

The form of a single fraggle was partly submerged in pond water, head and arms propped up on a large lilypad, only the occasional intake of breath, and slow steady motion of treading water showing that it was even alive.

"What in the rock? Mokey? It's the dead of night!" An awestruck whisper broke the heavy silence. " You'll catch your death of cold! Where's Poppy?"

"I'm fine...He's with Red…She'll keep him safe." Mokey said airily.

"It's a wonder that Red is so good at pediatric care..." Boober said mostly to himself, nearing the pond.

"Gobo and I were up most of tonight after Wembley had the most _gruesome_ nightmare you could imagine, about some silly creature with a _million_ tentacles called the IRS..I'm just now getting back home and…Mokey, are you _really_ okay? You look pale.."

"His first word was Dada." Mokey continued slowly, as if she had not heard a word of his explanation.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Poppy's first word was 'Dada'. Cantus was holding him and the sun..the sun was reflecting off the snowdrop flowers.."

"Mokey, you really are sick!" Boober gasped in horror. "You're complexion is all off and you're talking funny, you don't even sound like yourself! It might be a very rare viral infection of the…"

"I'm so terribly selfish Boober." Mokey rambled on, fixing the small green fraggle with tearfully black eyes that seemed to root him to the spot, where he sat down at the edge of the pond, perplexed.

"Mokey..you're not..that is you of all fraggles could never be called.." Boober began, but the words died in his throat.

"I'm suppose to be the strong one…"Mokey, I hurt my knee." "Mokey, tell me its going to be okay." "Mokey, you're poems make me happy." "Mokey, as long as we have your singing voice nothing can ever…" Her voice cracked and silence settled upon the water again.

"Mokey…" Boober breathed. "It's okay if..sometimes..if."

"I hate…myself..All the magic I knew, all the prayers to the moon.. all the herbs I had ever written about…I used them all..every single one..and he didn't wake up..he didn't wake up…"

"Mokey."

"The song of a midnight place, it took him..from me…"

In the background a handful of Spellunkers slowly rose out of their stone tubes, beginning to sway their long fuzzy worm like bodies to a soft music box like medley.

_**A whisper in the silence, a warm compassionate hand.**_

_**Eyes that know your soul without a word.**_

Slowly, sleepily, a handful of ditizes lit the cave like tiny twinkling stars.

_**Some long forgotten song whispered in winter…**_

_**The notes only the always loved have heard.**_

Softly, four toe ticklers joined in to add a low background hum to the words.

_**I see your face in an still imagined place,**_

_**Your laugh in every breath that's mine.**_

Boober reached up his arm feebly toward the waters edge and then let it drop down just as quickly. Mouthing the next lyrics in a soft unheard whisper.

_**Say you'll be home to warp your arms around me.**_

_**To kiss my cheek and say that all is fine. **_

The toe ticklers stooped humming and the ditzies quietly began to put out their firefly like lights one by one.

_**I try to make my voice carry in this winter..the song of… he who… is always… loved to…me.**_

The cave was wrapped again in total darkness, as both the fraggle upon the lilypad, and the one curled up upon the bank, gave into the silent company of sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The tiny ring of the few doozer hammers of the hard working early morning swift beat along with the raise and fall of the many fraggles still fast asleep in their living tunnels.

Suddenly, a miniature row of doozer stick lampposts topped with crystal stones flashed to life, illuminating the faces of Architect Cotterpin and her specialty selected crew.

A yell of 'Yay, we did it!" and "Go work-team seven!" wield up...

A second later, the thunderous sound of heavy footsteps moving at a breakneck pace drummed around them, shaking the stones off their mountings and draping the group again in morning shadow.

The doozers' exhausted sigh was broken by their leaders energetic voice.

"C'mon everyone! All we have ta do is try again!"

* * *

The yellow blur topped with two orange red pigtails that still showed the ragged split ends of a long gruesome two am battle with a hair brush, galloped briskly, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

Red, with Poppy in tow in a backpack carrier made of heavy sun-aged rope, had been unable to speak in nothing but a worried mumble for the last mile.

Her mind seemed to only get more muddled and confused as she drew nearer to the Guest of Honor cave.

"But what should I say? " Well you see, Gobo, I said something really dumb to Mokey last night. I hope she didn't go off and… ?" Nah, that doesn't sound right…"You know Gobo, I know we all swore never to talk about Cantus but I…" No, no..that's just as bad."

Red sighed and repositioned the carrier on her back, noticing that the little fraggle was now dozing without a care in the world.

"Immature huh?" She sat down slowly on a rock, only a few yards away from her destination.

"Am I really immature? What does that even _mean_?"

Red reached up to her shoulder and gazed at the pink hand, so much smaller than her own, that clasped its whole width over only two of her fingers.

"_**Life's so simple when you're little…it's just like that old rhyme…**_" Red started to sing, as the buzz and hammering of the doozer constructors rose up to meet her words in an blues-ike beat.

Softly, fuzzy daydreams in her mind filled the scene like a waking dream sharing.

_**When you're five or when you eight, you start to eat off a plate.**_

A tiny Red, no bigger than Poppy, sat in a crudely fashioned high chair of branches wearing a bib with a radish embroidered upon it. Her father, a tall orange fraggle with a aqua colored beard, was making funny faces. Her mother, a heavy-set, short, blue fraggle with white hair, was trying to spoon feed her daughter peas. Little Red refused them with a turn of her head one way and then the other…

_**When you're eleven everyone's so proud of you, when you learn to tie your shoe. **_

..before dumping the whole bowl on her head and licking the goo running down her cheeks, making her parents erupt in laughter.

The vision melted away to present day Red who absentmindedly picked a daisy, staring at it with worried eyes.

_**All these things Mom and Pop knew for sure, but what's it mean to be immature?**_

A new vision of a slightly older Red, her hair pulled up in a single ponytail and her cheeks covered in freckles melted into view. She sat, sleeping soundly at a stone desk covered with papers, Around her a crowd of other young fraggles danced, yelled, and threw paper airplanes.

_**At eighteen you learn to read and write…**_

The warhoop of a teacher shouting her name made her sit bolt upright, the whole side of her face now covered in the fresh sloppy berry ink printing that had once been on her paper. The whole class rolled in laughter.

_**And at twenty-three you can stay up and play half of the night!**_

Red twirled the daisy in-between her palms and threw it upward, catching it again just before it landed on her lap.

_**All these things I've always known for sure, so what's it mean to be immature?**_

A vision of the first day Red and Mokey moved in together appeared in fuzzy washed out colors of memory, Red ordering friends around as they found places to put all her many things, while Mokey looked on in horror as other half the room was filled to bursting.

_**At twenty-seven you're up and grown, big enough to live on your own…**_

A vision of Red kissing Gobo's cheek blended into the drab grey tones of the cave wall.

_**True love will come to you, between thirty-three and forty-two.**_

Red began to pick off the daisies petals one by one as the last vision melted away.

_**Of all these things a fraggles' sure, but what's it mean…?**_

She got up and walked toward the doorway of the cave, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

_**...What's it mean...?**_

She knocked on the door, her knocks set in time to the last beats of the song, as she knocked with one hand and held a newly awaken Poppy around the waste in a football hold in the other.

_**To..be..im-ma-ture ?**_

The cave door opened with a slow sluggish creak to reveal a very sleepy looking Wembley rubbing his eyes with a voice halfway between a yawn and a groan.

"Morning…Red..What are you doin' here?"

"Where's Gobo?" Red snapped, grabbing Wembley's nose with her free hand in a business like fashion and lifting him upward an inch to stare eye to eye with the trembling fraggle. "It's really _really_ important."

"Oh, oh..well, he's n..not here right now." Wembley sputtered. "I think he had to get up extra early to teach the volunteer fire department how to start a outer space fire..or how to put one out. I can never remember…"

Red let the younger fraggles light green nose go, sending him tumbling back to earth with a sigh and a thump.

"Why does he always have to go somewhere when I really…?" She mused to herself, as her gaze fell on Wembley with a glimmer of hope.

"Say Wembley…" Red began, her voice sounding strangely smaller and softer than it ever would normally be, even when she was not shouting orders.

"Yeah Red?" He replied with a yawn.

"Do you think I'm…mature?" She finished, titling her head to the side and curling the end of a bedraggled pigtail around her finger nervously as she glanced at the ground.

"Gosh…" Wembley began. " I…think…"

"You can tell me the truth" Red added with an over-dramatic flare, bracing herself. "I can take it..No, I _deserve_ it even…"

"I think..you're..very mature Red." Wembley blurted out.

"Wha?" Red peeped, taken aback by the normally soft spoken fraggles defeat answer…and his green hand which happened to now be placed more than supportively over her own yellow one.

"No..in fact, I think, I think, you're beautiful Red."

"Oh. My. _Gosh_. Wembley I please tell me you're _not_ actually…" Red said flatly, rooted with shock to the spot.

"I think you're the most attractive fraggle that ever lived." Wembley added, his voice low as his mouth parted in a cocky smile.

"..You _are_ actually." Red concluded with a nervous attempt to pull away, only to find herself suddenly pulled back, nose to muzzle with Wembley.

"Here!" Red peeped quickly, raising little Poppy up like a living shield between them and passing him off into the green fraggles arms as she skillfully wiggled out of them herself.

"You. Baby. Turn to look after. Bye!" She yelled over her shoulder, and was gone into the distance in a flash.

"Red?!" Wembley yelled, his voice cracking slightly as it regained its nervous edge.

"Red, I didn't mean to…That is..Aw, Red I don't know anything about babies! Where are you goooing?!"

"To the trash heeeap!" Came a faint reply.

"Oh no, oh no..!" Wembley chanted to himself, holding the toddler away from his body as if it were some strange alien life-form that would explode at any moment, and starting to make his way down a back tunnel screaming all the way.

"Gobo, Gobo, help! He's leaking _everywhere_…!"


	8. Chapter 8

The normally deserted entryway to the Gorg's garden was not quite so empty today.

A lone blueish-green fraggle was at the that moment pacing back and forth before the hole, a trench formed in the earth, falling just short of his knees.

"If I just…" He said, lifting his head up high as he paced one way. "But if I don't.." He snapped in rebuttal, retracing his steps the other direction.

Another voice, much louder and more bouncy than his own, interrupted his nearly silent battle with himself.

"Ewewewe, ewewew..ACK!" The voices' owner concluded, falling muzzle first as she tripped over Boober's pacing rut.

Red groaned as she sat up. "Boober, I think my brain needs a bath, got any soap?"

"Anti-bacterial or heavy-duty?" Boober remarked, and then a moment later threw up his arms.

"Argh, what am I saying? This is no time for jokes! Mokey is missing!.."

He fell to his knees with a disheartening thump.

"I woke up this morning and she wasn't there!"

Red let out a bottled up breath.

"Oh, so she was sleeping with _you_ last night, that is a relief, I thought she had…"

Boober's normally lighter green face slowly began to get flushed patches that resembled the dark green of his body fur.

"W... she wasn't sleeping _with_ me, that is, I was sort of sleeping _beside_..Anyway, it's all quite platonic."

Red giggled as she got up, towering many inches over Boober in his hole.

"Aw, Boober, I'm a big girl, it's none of my business who Mokey plays moonlight snuggle with..I'm just glad…"

"We weren't moonlight snuggling!" Boober yelled, his face now completely dark green with a mixture of embarrassment and rage.

"Don't you know Mokey went swimming last night? She might have triple pneumonia by now…"

"Oo, so you two went swimming, how roman…" Red's teasing was stopped abruptly by a hand over her lips as Boober used the leverage of her added height to pull himself up on level ground again.

"I think she went to see the Trash Heap." He whispered with a serious glare.

"Oah Ash rep?" Red exclaimed in muffled horror as Boober finally took his hand away from her mouth.

"Oh no, did you tell her about?.."

"No…" Boober replied sadly. "You know Red, I think I liked it better when the grogs use to thump us…What are you doing?"

Red took a deep breath as she settled down on her mark like a champion runner.

"I have to go see the Trash Heap to. Could you cover for me, Boober? Please?" Red looked back, batting her eyes in a second silent plea.

"I'm not sure…Is this all only to rescue Mokey and cure her gripping depression?"

"Um…yes?"

Boober sighed, lifting up the copper ladle he now always wore on a length of string around his waist like a sword.

"Why do I get the feeling that is the most honest sounding answer I could plan on getting from you?.."

He took in his own deep breath, raising the ladle high like a knight's jousting lance.

"Aw well, you only live and die horribly once…"

With a scream of "For Mokey!" he dashed boldly into the garden, the sicking ring of a glass jar meeting earth resounding though the rock as Red nimbly ran into the sunlight in his wake, hugging the side of the pathway with a well practiced light hopping gallop.

The giant glass jar rocketed into the air and flipped over on its own accord by means of a pulley and wire, sending Boober crashing onto what was now its' 'floor' as a strong piece of metal screen slid over the top to form a lid.

Red scampered away scott free around the side pathway to one side of the well, as the sound of huge footsteps drew closer.

"Well, well, well. If this isn't a pleasant surprise. If it isn't the well spoken Ornithorhynchus Fragglius specimen 397." A high mild mannered voice remarked.

The figure that loomed near had light purple skin and a mop of tan hair the texture of yard worn back in a single ponytail. A pair of glasses framed her wide nose, making her magnified blue eyes appear to be twice their normal size as she reached to get a pencil and notebook from behind her ear.

All and all, she was a very typical looking gorg, the white sundress she was wearing adorned here and there with far too many pearls to mark her as anything short of a future overseer of The Universe.

"Let's see…my my my, your last check up was over six months ago 397, that just won't be satisfactory. I will have to start a compete a compete analyze again from the top."

Boober groaned from where he was now sitting cross legged on the jar floor.

"Can't we just not do it and say that we did?" He shouted up hopefully.

"No no no, I won't have my research paper based on anything but the most accurate first hand documentation."

The gorg slid away the wire topping, reaching in to grab a very unhappy looking Boober, tucking him security against her body with an arm as she used both hands to write.

"Let me see now, male of early maturity…My my my, do you creatures have limited life-spans! Honestly, what _respectable_ creature lives to be less than three hundred years old?... Of the long haired sub-genus of fragglius, originating in the cooler climate of the northern Fraggle Rock…"

"This is so demeaning…" Boober remarked as he was placed in a small cage upon a table filled with charts and beakers and a gigantic microscope.

"Not at all! Why, this is _civilized_!" The gorg said, waving her pencil at him. "This is _science_!"

"Ow!" Boober yelped as the grog plucked a sample of his body fur with tweezers the size of a small tree.

"Honestly, would you rather I was chasing after you with a club like some dim witted barbarian?"

"Honesty, yes!" The fraggle shouted back, but his answer was drown out by another voice twenty times louder.

"Missy! Missy, I can't find my shoe!" Came the childlike whimper.

Missy Gorg rolled her eyes with a sigh and yelled back in a well practiced harsher tone that bought to mind an Outer Space big-rig truck driver.

"Did you check under your bed?"

"Aw, there it is! Golly Missy, you're so smart. No wonder we're get'n married when our mommies and daddies get back from that grog gathering."

The furry form of Jr. Gorg, taller than his female companion by at least a foot, stood in the doorway of the castle dreamily, wearing a princely shirt of blue and green velvet with puffed sleeves and pair of shiny black shoes.

"How do I look?" He asked in playful tone.

"Like a well dressed monkey." She replied.

"Why, thank you! You look nice to..Could you help me put on my sash?"

The smaller gorg took off her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose in exhaustion before going up to start tying the many decorations onto Jr's outfit.

"Let me make one thing _perfectly_ clear..." She said between her cliched jaw.

"The only reason I'm marring you is because you're the only male within a _lifetimes'_ travel of my own family in the universe..." She added, tying the knot a bit too tight.

"If I wasn't a true lady of breeding I would be telling you to take your wedding and…"

"Aw, Missy." Jr cut her off turning to kiss her on the nose. "I love you to!"

The young gorg turned back to her examination of Boober, her right eye twitching ever so slightly.

"Now little fragglius, it's time to take your _temperature_…"

"Nooo! Anything but that!" Boober wailed. "Red, Mokey, heeeelp!"


	9. Chapter 9

The sun shown down golden and warm, making even the lowly pile of garage that two mole like rats were rooting around next to look cozy and cheerful.

Red Fraggle scooted to a stop, breathing heavily before the tall collection of filth.

"Madam Trash Heap! Madam Trash Heap!" She gasped, trying her best to breathe though her mouth and not her nose.

Their oracle may have been wise, but her odor was not all that appealing.

"Whew, I finally got here! Oh, I have so many things I need to ask you about!"

Both mole rats looked up as if only now noticing all the commotion of the arriving fraggle, looking her up and down.

"You are in the presence of the all knowing…" The pink rat began.

"All seeing…" The grey one added.

"Trash Heap! Nah!" Both announced together.

"But if I was you, I'd get out of that presence right now." Philo said, ruffling his dark pink fur.

"But why?" Red whined.

" 'Cause Marjory is in a state of disrepair." Gunge spat.

"I'll say, that last advice took all of 'er sensitive sensibilities, if ya know what I mean." Philo sniffed, nabbing a used tissue over his eyes and blowing his nose like a miniature trumpet.

"Last advice? You mean Mokey's already been here?" Red asked, hopping hopefully in front of Philo.

"Tall fraggle in a white robe?"

"Yes, that's her!" Red said, hopping faster.

"Maaybe she was here…" Gunge said with a half hearted nod.

"If she was, she left a couple hours ago." Philo sneered.

"Oh foo…" She looked one way and then the other with a sly curious look. " What advice did you give?"

The topmost layer of the pile of trash rose up slowly suddenly, it's contents rearranging themselves into a face, neck, arms and upper torso of what looked like an old gypsy with a bottle cap necklace.

"I make it a point never to tattle, young fraggle." It spoke in a warm voice that still held some of the tell signs of having been crying, lifting an old fashion looking pair of glasses without lens on a rod to her eyes.

"That's it Marjory, tell her off!" Philo agreed.

"Yeah, you've been givin' out advice like free popcorn these last few days, you're in no shape ta…"

Gunge began, but was cut off by a solid rap of the large glasses on his head.

"Now, now boys, down! I think I know when I've overdone it."

Marjory huffed, raising herself up to her full height proudly.

" I still got a few good ones in this old body of mine. After all, if it wasn't such a dirty job I wouldn't be doing it would I?"

"Now what seems to be the trouble?" The trash heap asked, leaning in with interest.

"Well you see…" Red began, taking a long deep breath.

"Aw no, this looks like a _big_ one." Gunge mumbled, ducking his head into an old eggshell.

"My best friend, she was having trouble with something I wasn't suppose to talk about, but she made me talk about it, and then I wanted to make her feel better by making her feel worst, which made her feel worst and not better…"

The Trash Heap nodded as Red gasped continuing on with her long run on explanation.

"She actually understands all that "_As The Rock Rolls_" stuff?" Philo whispered.

"Impressive, ain't it?" Gunge whispered back.

"..and then she called me _immature_, and then I thought I might _really_ be, so I went to go see my _other_ friend, who is a boy and actually _more_ than a friend to me, but we never seem to be able to…and besides that _his_ friend , whose _my_ friend to, tried to…"

"How old are you little fraggle?" Marjory interrupted.

" Thirty eight ma'am..but you see.." Red answered in a vain tempt to get back to her story.

"Ah, thirty-eight. You know that old saying, "True love with come to you…"

"Between thirty-three and forty-two." Yes, I know it."

"Ah, those are the days..you know, I had a man myself once…" The oracle began in a far away tone.

"You did?" Red said, wrinkling her nose in disbelief and an emotion she couldn't quite name.

"Why of course! Have you ever heard of a compost pile?"

"No, but I have a feeling I'm about to." Red replied, her pigtails wilting down from the disappointment of going even longer without any answer for her troubles over the subject of normally inanimate objects love lifes'.

"Wonderful steady job, composting. You have to really know your stuff." The trash heap rambled with a dreamy sigh. "Takes so long to get results you know…He had a great reputation with the worms, that one…"

Red's pleading voice snapped the oracle out of her glazed over expression.

"But what is your advice to me, Madam Trash Heap, ma'am?"

"Oh! Yes..that's right… My advice to you is: What matters more to you: What other people call you, and see you as, or who you really are?" She spoke with a serious wag of her hand.

"I don't understand…" Red said, her brow wrinkled with effort.

"My advice: Be yourself. Don't worry about what others think. Be yourself and everything will work out fine." The Trash Heap concluded, patting the little yellow fraggle on the head.

" 'Be myself ?' That's all?" Red repeated, some of her usual cheerfulness returning to her voice.

"You got it!" The Trash Heap relied with a yawn.

"Thank you!" Red yelled, getting on her mark again and quickly darting back in the direction of fraggle rock.

"Marjory, that was wonderful!" Philo exclaimed, zipping over to hug her, where he was quickly joined by Gunge.

"Yeah, you're really in your top form today." Gunge said with a smile.

"Well boys, as many generations as I've talked to, you learn a thing or two, and remember all their names to boot… but you know…"

"Yeah…?"

"I always miss the years when their biggest worries are missing hats."

The trash heap, as slowly and silently as it had awoken, drew itself back into the earth once more, just as a colorful array of breakfast scarps was thrown on its surface to bake in the early sun.

* * *

What looked to be a mere shadow of the once full of life fraggle known as Boober was now clinging pitifully to the bars of his enclosure made up of gorg size paperclips.

Suddenly, his head perked up as he spotted a fast moving dot of yellow from his higher vantage point…and watched as it kept going right pass the gorg table.

"Red, Red, where are you going?" Boober yelled in a voice halfway between a whisper and a scream, which, although difficult for most fraggles to do, was actually one of his more practiced talents.

"To find Gobo!" Red replied, taking a flying leap the rest of the way into the entry to fraggle rock.

"But where's Mokey?" Boober whisper-screamed in a tearful tone. "Red, don't leave me!"

Red popped her head out of the rock with a easy-going laugh.

"Aw Boober, you can get out of there easy, just be yourself!"

In a flash she was gone again, just as Missy Gorg appeared from the castle, with a impressive armload of tubes and wires.

"Be myself? But that's never helped before! Red, I'm not a '_Happy to be You and Me_' fraggle! Being myself only brings misfortune, and pain, and contagious warts and…"

His speech was cut short by the form of Missy Gorg reaching into the cage, armed with a sinister looking clamp in each hand attached to a wire, and aimed purposefully at Boobers' cheeks.

"Now, little fragglus, this new shock therapy should only result in a few days of superficial numbness…"

"H..Has..anyone…" Boober began, backing up into a far corner of the cage, shaking as his voice blurted out at a record pace.

"..ever told you lately..Miss. Gorg,.. that your extensive multisyllabic vocabulary…rivals in elegance the ancient scientific soliloquies?"

He finished, squeezing his eyes shut.

The looming clamps stopped barely short of his face.

"Not lately…" Missy Gorg replied with a surprised giggle. "Although I can't say I would be opposed to hearing it again, little fragglius…"

Boober opened his eyes again slowly, giving the giant what he only hoped was a charming smile.


	10. Chapter 10

"But why Gobo? I mean to just push him off on me like that?"

The shorter of two fraggles asked as they both passed by the Crystal Caverns that reflected the ditizes' happy afternoon glow in prisms of light against their fur.

"Well, did you do anything to upset her?" Gobo asked.

"No…well, _yeah_, I guess I did…but I didn't _mean_…"

Poppy, riding piggy back on Gobo's shoulders, reached out toward the illusion of color with a babble, pushing up the brim of of the other-sized bomber hat away from his eyes.

Gobo hushed him softy and broke off a piece of small hollow crystal, scooping it into a pool of nearby sweetwater.

"Wembley, Wembley, it doesn't matter what you _meant_ if you _did_ something like what you've _been_ doing lately."

He picked a thick clump of moss from the cave wall and twisted it tightly onto the top of the crystal, poking a hole in its center before handing the makeshift bottle up to Poppy.

"..Honestly, you do things like that to a girl that's not our friend and be aiming for a punch in nose!"

"You're right, I'll say sorry next time I see her…" Wembley said quietly, perking up as a thought accrued to him. "At least I'm not a silly creature."

"Yeah, six years of this?" Gobo said with a laugh. "You'd be slapped to death half-way to the moon, eh!"

"Maybe that's what makes them so silly..the small ones seem okay up until then…" Wembley mused. "Say Gobo, where did you learn to take care of a baby like that anyway?"

"Well, I helped look after _you_, didn't I?"

"Oh yeah..I think." Wembley agreed, tripping as the narrow cave path dipped suddenly downward.

"You were probably too tiny to remember." Gobo said, backtracking to help Wembley up.

" It was way back when your mom first got sick and asked Uncle Matt and me to keep an eye on you."

"Hmm..I don't remember my mom." Wembley scratched his head, and ran to keep up with his friend. "I remember _you_ though, and when I started wembling."

"When you _started_? You were always wembling…" Gobo laughed, steadying Poppy against his chest to burp him.

"You think you're bad now, just picture yourself with a mouthful of mushroom and strawberry juice and a load in your pants."

"That's disgusting!" Wembley replied with a shutter.

"You're telling me. But I got use to it after a while, still this little guy is a humble bug compared to how bad we use to be…"

"We did have good times back then though, didn't we Gobo?" The young green fraggle said with a grin.

"The best …" Gobo agreed with a warm smile, letting the sworming toddler down.

"There you go, the girls have probably been babying him, not letting him walk a lot. A little mud 'ill do him good."

"Yeah, just follow us Poppy…." Wembley yelled with a whoop.

Poppy started after them at a galloping hop, tripping every few steps over his oversized socks behind the two older fraggles as the scene melted away to a long ago time.

Gobo, no bigger than Boober was many years ago, wearing his favorite striped shirt and with long pink hair that rimmed his hat held a baby Wembley on his lap, trying to teach him how to play patty cake without much success, before giving up and tickling him silly.

**Everyday the world begins again, sunny skies or rain.**

**Come and follow me,**

The scene changed again, the two were slightly older and where hopelessly caught up on the far limb of a tree near the gorgs garden. The view panned slowly downward to show the snarling form of Tosh's Beastie as a 'puppy' .

**Every sunrise shows me more and more**

**So much to explore, come and follow me**

Back in the present the two danced in line, throwing their larger than life shadows against the side of the cavern as Poppy scurried to catch up.

**Every morning, every day, every evening, calling me away!**

"**You wanta sing Wembley?**" Gobo, asked.

"**Sure!**" He replied, grabbing Poppy's hand with a helpful grin.

Gobo and Wembley, still the same age as they had been in the last scene sat around a gooy black mud puddle, working proudly on what looked like a large mud mountain with a peak made of red moss…

**O' while the sun goes round I'll still be found, following the sound**

…But as they sat back to admire their hard work, the little form of Boober oozed out of the muck, crying horribly as the two friends patted him on the back.

**Something's calling me.**

The scene changed one last time to focus on a much younger, shorter Mokey, her hair tied back in a braid with a a long white ribbon, wheeling along a large play baby carriage made of a couple blankets pulled over a crudely fashioned frame of twigs.

A younger Red, with freckled cheeks and her single pigtail, hopped beside her friend, peeking inside the carriage to wordlessly coo at its contents.

**When the world goes drifting back to bed...**

Slowly, the head of a Boober rose into view, sucking his thumb and wearing wearing a frilly blue bonnet rimmed with yellow lace…He was joined quickly by a slightly older Wembley in a yellow bonnet with white trim , who smiled widely at Red before….

**Memories in my head, wonders follow me**

Slowly, reluctantly, and wearing the frilliest pink bonnet of all, the head of a very unhappy looking Gobo rose from the depths of the carriage, spitting out the pacifier that had been been his teeth as Red rolled with laughter.

**Every morning, every day, every evening, calling me away!**

**Every morning, every day, every evening, calling me away!**

As their song came to an end the three arrived just outside the main hall and Gobo kneed down to Poppy's level.

"You ever play Hidey Ho before?"

The little fraggle shook his head.

"Oh, you're gonna love it!" Wembley said with a laugh, already with a blindfold in hand.

"I bet there's just enough time for a game before we have to be getting back outer space and say goodbye Gobo!"


	11. Chapter 11

The Echo Hole could not be called a well traveled spot to even the most adventurous of fraggles.

In fact, save for the game they held once a year to pick a pretend ruler with The Finger Of Light, a thin magical beam of moonlight from the world above, that would only chance to shine down on a chosen one, the cave was left to itself.

The gray, drab walls that rimmed the bottomless pit swirled with thick mist, bridged only by the truck of a fallen tree bowed with hundreds of years of age to look like a natural rock formation.

The mist weaved here and there, in some small magic way absorbing the rushing sound of the wind that carried down the hole, and amplifying it in a resounding chorus of emptiness.

The only true light in the nearly forgotten place was at the other side of the bridge where the finger of light would normally appear. But in the daylight, the sun from above merely shown down in tiny pools from the stones' many cracks.

This sunlight barley fell upon the tall lilac fraggles' face where she sat alone at the far side of bridge, hugging her legs to body as her toes were left to hang over the edge of the hole perilously.

Her eyes reflected the empty nothingingness of the cave, rarely blinking as she breathed shallowly, the slight movement disturbing a peddle and sending it tumbling downward with the loud beat of a single drum.

"Don't do it Mokey!" A desperate voice cried out, braking the silent with his wavering echo.

"Think of the _children_! Poor Wembley would…"

Boober stopped at the top of the bridges slope, lost in thought.

"Hm, maybe that's not a the best incentive at the moment. Think of Poppeeii!"

He yelped, thumbing muzzle over tail down the slide like curve of the far side and bumping face first into the sitting Mokey.

"Boober?" Mokey spoke, her voice slow and soft as if she had just been awoken from a dream by the bump of the landing and his small grin. "What are you doing here?"

"The Trash Heap told me you would be here."

Mokey looped her tail around her hands thoughtful, still not looking up.

"You came all the way here from…?"

"I know a short cut." Boober began simply, sitting down as well to look out at the void with a peaceful expression.

"This is one of my favorite brooding spots. The suggestion of plummeting to certain doom is particularly lovely. But not something I would recommend in your con…"

Mokey finally met his gaze, giving the red haired fraggle beside her the smallest of reassuring smiles.

"I'm not going to kill myself Boober."

"Oh, good then." He replied quietly, flicking a stone off into the unknown like a tiddlywink. "..Although, I would have written you a beautiful eulogy."

Mokey's laugh was a ragged strained sound that died halfway though as she reached out to squeeze Boober's hand.

"Thank you…"

Boober slowly, carefully, as if afraid the taller fraggle would break like fragile crystal, scooted nearer.

"I missed that.. you know..your laugh…You know, Mokey, it's okay to be sad, but being sad alone doesn't suit you. Because you're not."

Boober whispered, settling into his traditional spot hugging her shoulder.

"I know it's not much…but..you..have me…"

"Aw, Boober what a _sweet_ thing to say."

Mokey said, a bit of her old enthusiasm awakening in her voice.

"You've always been such a good fri…"

"Y…You never…" The small sound of Boober's whisper cut in, muffled by the fabric of her sweater, and barely notable.

"Pardon?" Mokey asked, cocking her head to the side. Boober's voice, even at this nearer angle was strangely flat and drained sounding, as if he was holding up a heavy invisible load of boulders.

"You never did give me…an answer when you..left."

Mokey's brow wrinkled in thought.

"An answer to what, little Boober?"

Slowly, carefully, with a well paced manner that suggested months of practice, Boober rose he head from its cuddling spot.

"W..when I asked..i..if you would b...be my lifemate."


	12. Chapter 12

--

No fraggle still alive could remember who had first came up with the game of Hidey Ho.

Some myths said that the game that have since become a run and scream and catch race with a blindfolded center fraggle playing it was a reenactment of ancient battle. But if it truly was just a play version of some nameless knight's teasing of a wayward blind blue dragon or not mattered little to the present day fraggles.

They happily froze at each yell of Gobo's 'Hidey' and zipped around the main hall with every ring of their own yell of 'Ho' in reply.

Somehow the hundred or so fraggles playing all seemed to just be a bit to quick for their renowned Traveling Gobo, some even being so bold as to zip between his legs with a laugh and a loud raspberry.

All and all the main hall was a cheery place in the golden warmth of the afternoon, as a few fraggles even hid in the pond, holding their breaths under the reflected shine of the sun upon its surface.

"Hidey!" Gobo yelled tentatively, darting forward.

"Ho!" Everyone replied together, Wembley in the background zipping to the other side with Poppy gripping tightly to his tail.

"Hidey, Hidey?"

"Ho, ho, ho!" Everyone laughed, some taking a flying leap over his head to the other side.

"Aw, come on guys, you can't keep it up forever!" Gobo made a lazy semi-circle where he stood. "One of you is going to slip up sometime, in fact Boober waxed the floor here again so it's pretty likely…Hidey!"

"HO!" Came the spirited yell as a yellow blur spend into the hall, running head first into Gobo and making him slip over backward.

"O?" Came the crowds curious reply at seeing their heros downfall.

It only took a moment for any onlooker to see that the figure that had tackled him was Red Fraggle..and less than a moment to see that she happened to be kissing him.

The fraggle kiss , a true adult fraggle kiss was halfway between a normal silly creature kiss on the lips and an unspoken rubbing of noses. Both of which Red seemed to be quite good at to the crowds surprise, and even more so to Gobo's.

"Red? What's..gotten into you?" Gobo asked shocked and breathlessly, when he was able to speak again.

"Red?" Came the low sinister sound of Marlon Fraggle's voice in the background.

"Nothing that wasn't already there!" Red giggled happily, taking off Gobo's blindfold to expose the puzzled look in his warm eyes.

"Red?" Came Marlon's evil sounding plea again.

"Well Red, that's okay I guess, but in front of everyone?" Gobo mumbled, half driving away from Red's hug as they got up.

"Just a sec…" Red sighed, looking over at the maniacal looking fraggle with one swinted eye. "What is it Marlon?"

"When I am 'It' will you kiss _me_ to?" Marlon asked.

"Eww. No, of course not!" Red said with a shutter turning back to Gobo as Marlon slinked off .

"Anyway...that's just my point Gobo, I don't care anymore! I've always done things my own way and I'm not going to stop now. Most of all about something like this, if they don't like the fact that I love you and you love me they can go take a leap in the pond!"

In the background, silently, a handful of radishes was traded off between one group of fraggles to another. The whisper of "I had five radishes riding on Wembley." Seemed to go unheard over the ruckus Red was causing.

"And another thing, I'm sick and tired of being afraid for you. Plus I've won just about every award known to fraggldom here so I've decided…"

Gobo laughed "To what? Make more awards?"

"No…" Red said proudly, tousling Gobo's pink hair. "I'm going with you..to Outer Space."

"But Red, you've never.." Gobo began, but did not get far.

"Gobo! Gobooo!" Wembley screamed as he suddenly bolted in huffing and puffing from what looked like quite a bit of running, with Poppy clinging to his tail like it was a monkey-bar.

"I just caught Boober as he was running by our hiding spot near the west entryway, you won't believe where Mokey is..Echo Hole!"


	13. Chapter 13

The Echo Hole absorbed the silence that welled up between the two fraggles in the same nature as it did their voices, laying it like a uneasy blanket over the shorter green Boober who had at that moment taken to hiding his head in Mokey's cloak.

With the utmost care she reached down to lift his chin upward, sending Boober's hat gently tumbling off his long feathery red hair as she laughed softly.

"Silly Boober, that was just a joke..wasn't it?"

The small fraggles eyes were as always masked by his thick mane, that now in later age fell almost to the top of his nose, but his voice in reply held all the hurt and disappointment any on-seer would have needed to understand.

"No Mokey…it wasn't..I meant it…" Boober's own laugh was bitter and died halfway though. "I'm only two years younger than Red, but with my kinds' slow growth hormones you've only ever seen me as a silly…maybe I am…"

"Oh no, Boober..don't say things like that!"

Boober resumed his former hugging position against her side with an over-dramatic flare.

"It's okay, Mokey, don't mind me. You've got too much to contend with right now as it is without having to deal with my silly insecurities…I'm here for you…_just_ for you..if you ever want.._someday_…if you..want…"

The Echo Hole, a void of the music-less whisper of wind being drawn into its depths provided acoustics to Boober's small steady baritone as he began to sing.

**If my love was a song,**

**It would echo on and on…**

Cobwebs around the two swayed like waves in the wind to the unheard beat around the pools of light the two fraggles were settled by.

**And if life be a dream,**

**I hope I don't wake before I have time to sing…**

**Though I might get the lyrics wrong…**

**If my love was a song.**

The scene began to melt away to a blurry memory that was just visible getting clearer and clearer with each of the shaky notes…

**And if the stars no longer were to shine**

**And survived only in my mind**

**I'd give that memory to you…so you could sing it to…**

**If my love was a so…"**

"Mokey, Mokey!" The ear splitting sound of Wembley's voice echoed, shattering the scene.

"Ma, ma!" A tiny voice interjected in agreement, as the a group of three fraggles and one mini-puff ball tumbled down the slope of the bridge and bumping into the couple, sending the smaller of the two over the ledge.

A small whimper came from the dangling form of Boober, where he now hung sadly from Red's tail overlooking the hole.

"M...my.._song_..."

Mokey hugged Poppy as the small pink fraggle giggled happily in her arms.

"My baby! Did you have fun today with your aunt and uncle?"

"Auntie _Ed_, Unc' _Go_!" Poppy nodded happily in reply, pointing at the two.

"Guys, you just _interrupted_ my..." Boober began again at a whisper to Gobo and Red.

"Mokey, I've been thinking..." Red began, putting a hand on her friends shoulder.

"...that is, I had one more _stanza_ and..." Boober tried one last time in a tone that barely made it past his throat and caught the sensitive ear of Mokey.

_Oh Boober._ She mouthed silently, patting him on the back.

"I may not be as brave as Gobo, or as smart a Boober, or as artistic as you..."

Red continued on though this exchange, unknowing, as Gobo just hid a slight smile and Wembley looked from Mokey to Boober, as if trying to read a secret code.

"...Or have as much imagination as Wembley...But there's one thing that I do know. Gobo taught this from an Outer Space song, I made it less mushy by fixing the words, you know..."

"Parody loop-hole copyright infringement, how enlightening." Boober grumbled.

The five began their track back to the Great Hall, the first notes of a merry slow beat picking up as they crossed the bridge.

**The sun will be there tomorrow,**

**Bet yer' last radish bar that tomorrow, there'll be sun.**

Red said with a firm nod to Mokey, ending with a scream as they all slipped down the other side and landed with a loud bump.

**Just thinking about tomorrow, clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow,**

Red sang rubbing her head.

**'till there's none**

She grabbed hold of Mokey's hand, who grabbed hold of Gobo's in turn and then Wembley, who grabbed hold of a grumpy looking Boober's hand, making a living skipping chain of fraggles...

**When I'm stuck with a day that's grey and lonely,**

...ending with Poppy, who was hanging onto Boober's tail, and every now and then, tickling him with the end of it, as if hoping to make him cheer up.

**I just stick up my chin, and grin, and say...!**

As they pasts the Crystal Caverns and the Great Outer Maze in turn all types of Fraggle Rock creatures, from Toe Tickers and Inkspots, to Rumble Bugs, to the Blustering Bellowpane Monster, and The Glob, joined in.

**Oh, the sun will still be there tomorrow**

**So you gotta hang on 'till tomorrow,**

**Come what may!**

As the chain reached the Great Hall, countless fraggles perked up their heads, and others picked up their instruments, adding the backing of an orchestra to Red's voice.

**Tomorrow, tomorrow!**

**It's only a day away!**

Red broke away from the others, walking around the rocks at the pond's ege like a balance beam.

**The sun will be there tomorrow**

**Bet 'yer last radish bar that tomorrow, there'll be sun.**

**Just thinking about tomorrow, clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow,**

**'till there's none.**

She hopped down, only to find herself in the middle of a group of boy fraggles, led by Marlon and Rumple, and all eyeing her as they sang, drowning out her voice.

**When I'm stuck with a day that's grey and lonely!**

**I just stick up my chin, and grin, and say!...**

Red retreated behind Gobo who shot the group a glare as they sunk back into the crowd.

**Oh, the sun will still be there tomorrow**

**So you gotta hang on 'till tomorrow,**

**Come what may!**

Mokey nodded as the five finished together.

**Tomorrow, tomorrow!**

**It's only... a day... away!**

Mokey hugged Red and smiled, as the music died back into the many melodies of the everyday Rock.

"Red..I was wrong. Why I think your one of the most mature fraggles I know."

"Really?" Red replied happily, and turned to grin and tug Gobo's shirt. "Golly, did you hear that?"

"I always knew you were mature Red, you don't need any help at that eh!.." Gobo grinned. "But you could have just asked me, if it was really making you sad..."

"Why _you_! What do you think I was trying to do all day?" Red yelled, starting to go off on a half-hearted tantrum that included many pokes at Gobo's midsection.

Mokey laughed and scanned the crowd of fraggles surrounding her that all stood like furry pastel dots in their great number around the pond with its countless see saws, swings, and musical instruments.

"My friends...all my dear friends..The song of a midnight place always sings at birth and death...But maybe it is the time in-between that truly matters the most..It plays... for all of us..."

Boober was the first to nuzzle the folds of Mokey's sweater, following quickly by Wembley, and then Red, and Gobo last of all, reached out to rim them all in a giant bear hug that included the whole length of his tail when his arms were not long enough.

At that moment, as the four friends stood hugging their tearful storyteller, they could almost hear the sound of a magic pipe, carried by the wind...

* * *

_Play me down on the ground,_

_Song comes singing from the midnight places._

_Raise me high in the sky,_

_Song comes drifting through..._

* * *

The End.


	14. Chapter 14

* * *

Epilogue

* * *

The common hole in the wall seemed especially everyday that morning.

A ray of sunlight traced its path from the dim singing purple tunnel out to the spacious work room of a just as common old fashion Arizona home.

The old grey and white sheepdog lay in his sleeping basket wagging his tail this particular morning, transfixed with the little brown and cream colored fluff of a puppy chasing after a ball two times it's size.

It finally caught it, and growling, tried to climb up onto the top of the shiny red sphere.

Sprocket gasped, putting out a paw to gently keep his daughter from falling, and perching her in a full belly flop on top of the toy.

Doc, who had been observing all this time as well, laughed over the edge of his newspaper at the puppy's little yap of victory.

"Well Sprocky, I guess it really won't be too much trouble keeping just _one_ of the puppies. I'm glad you talked me into it..."

In the background, the poor little bit of fur could now be seen rolling over and over with the ball, clinging helplessly to it before he father stopped the cycle with a finger.

The puppy slowly oozed off the ball, collapsing drunkenly into the depths of the dog basket.

"Yes sir-re, Cassette reminds me of you at that age, Sprocket."

The old inventor reached down on a knee to pat his faithful pet.

"Of course, just because something new comes along to love doesn't mean that someone old you love means any less. We've just got to take this life as it comes, together! Right Sprocky?"

Sprocket barked and nodded in agreement, as suddenly a set of tiny voices broke up the man and his dog moment.

"Rope?" A serious voice asked.

"Check!" A energetic female voice replied.

"Compass?" The voice asked again.

"Checkahroonie!" An even more hyper voice added in, it's comment ending with the unmistakable sound of bone hitting metal. "Ow…"

"Doohickey and thingamabob?" The voice finished.

"Those are the first two things I packed!" The girl's voice grumbled.

"Okay, then, I think we're all set."

Doc put down his newspaper where he had been kneeing to pet his longtime friend upon seeing the three fraggles that ventured from the magical hole, two wearing loaded down backpacks and one carrying what looked to be a set of barbells, a golden trophy, and something that looked a bit like a costume meant to resemble a fish.

"Well, well, what do we have here..off on another great adventure Gobo and Wembley?"

"Somethin' like that…" Gobo shouted up to the old inventor with a nod.

"And my.. who is this?" Doc asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight of Red. "If I recall correctly we met once a long time ago young lady…"

"Oh yeah, we did!" Red said happily, grunting as she repositioned the heavy load on her back "Hello again Mr. Doc, Sir. My name's Red!"

"You certainly are!" Doc said with a chuckle at the little fraggles raw energy, switching his voice over in the same breath to a fatherly tone. "Well Red, am I to understand your going with these two?"

"Yep!"

Doc got up with some difficulty, only to bow deeply in a gentlemanly fashion before Red.

"In that case…as a humble ambassador of our race, let me be the first to welcome you to the human world."

Red blinked with a blank look at Doc rose upward again to lead on a a shiny looking craved walking stick beside his work-desk.

"Hu…man?" Red asked, turning the unfamiliar word over in her mouth. "Isn't your world the world of the Silly Creatures?"

"Hmm..I never get tired of the words you fraggles come up with…"

Doc seemed to think deeply for a moment before his weathered eyes betrayed the slight winkle of insight.

" …I think even I like your name for us better. Yes, yes Red, that is the Silly Creature world out there. Just remember: Don't take any wooden nickels!"

"Nickels? What's a nickel? Do they taste good?" Red asked, stepping nearer and away from the doorway.

"Come on Red." Gobo said, grabbing onto her hand.

"Look both ways before crossing the street!" Doc added with a wave.

"Com'on Red!" Wembley coaxed, pushing her from behind with his whole weight and not even moving the stubborn fraggle an inch.

"Street, what's a street?" She whimpered ending with a wavering tone. "Do they _eat_ fraggles?"

"You asked to go, so let's _get_ going, eh?" Gobo said, giving the yellow fraggles hand a gentle but firm tug in the door's direction.

"Walk on the sidewalk!"

Doc shouted with a last wave, as Sprocket waved to from his basket, where Cassette panted farewell, only her tongue visible among the overhanging mop of her fur.

"Side..walk? How do you walk on a side? Are the middle-walks there to? Okay, okay! I'm coming." Red grumbled, finally being pushed from the wisdom of Doc at last.

"You really _don't_ read postcards much do you?" Wembley chimed in.

Slowly, the three fraggles stepped out of the doggie door, into a flash of blinding sunlight…

* * *

End credits (as sung by Red )

* * *

Scene:

An everyday Arizona suburb in the afternoon, Gobo, Wembley and Red last of all appear as they go though the pet door. Red turns around and looks in silent awe.

_**Baby, what do you say we just get lost? **_

Scene:

Red tentatively puts a foot on the pavement and then draws it back, only to turn a second later and start hopping up and down on it.

_**Leave this one horse townlike two rebels without a cause? **_

Scene:

Gobo and Wembley quickly rush over pulling Red out of the way of narrowly being missed by a car.

_**See the people in Boston.**_

Scene:

Close up of Red's face as she coughs from the car's fumes, as the cloud clears to reveal a wide blue sky a slow mischievous smile slowly forms on her face, as she looks down to see the fact that they are all tied together in the usual traveling rope line.

_**Ain't your uncle still in Des Moines? **_

_**We can pack up tomorrow. **_

_**Tonight, let's flip a coin...! **_

Scene:

She gives the rope a sharp tug, half pulling half dragging the two along behind her.

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California!**_

_**Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer! **_

_**Up in the mountains, down by the ocean!**_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

The three swimming and doing cannon balls into the ocean.

The photo unfreezes and Red makes a face after getting a mouthful of salty water from Gobo's splash.

_**Where? It don't matter, as long as we're goin' **_

_**Somewhere together. I've got a quarter. **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

A roll of photo booth stickers of the three making silly faces and Red and Gobo kissing. The last mini picture unfreezes and Wembley pops up between the two, sporting hair newly died bright punk colors.

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California! **_

_**We can load what we own in the back of a U-haul van.**_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

Red, wearing oversized heart shaped sunglasses, a collection of neon colored snap bracelets on her tail, and licking a rainbow colored lollypop proudly drags a giant sack behind her. The picture unfreezes as Gobo gives her a disapproving look, her pigtails wilt as she begins to carry the bag back slowly toward bright "Toys 'R Us" lettering on the side a building.

_**Couple modern day Moses', searchin for the promised land... **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

The three are meditating cross-legged on satin pillows in what looks like a Indian temple. The scene unfreezes and Wembley opens his eyes, slowly tapping the nearby Red, who falls over with a clink onto an incense burner, fast asleep.

_**We can go four hundred miles before we stop for gas... **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

Red, Gobo, and Wembley marching with a line of Japanese kindergartners to school, one of them griping tightly to Wembley's nose instand of his hand.

_**We can drive for a day, and then we'll take a look at the map...! **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

Red, Gobo and Wembley standing in front of Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" in the National Gallery of Australia. The photo unfreezes and the three tilt their heads to one side and then the other in puzzlement, turning to each other and shrugging.

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California! **_

_**Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer! **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

The three are standing in front of a tall sign just out of veiw in the pouring rain: Red wearing her fish costume and big floppy wide rimmed hat, and Wembley wearing sunglasses, swimming fins, and holding a boogie board. The picture unfreezes and both of them turn to glare at Gobo between them as he grins sheepishly, the camera panning upward to the words "Welcome to Sunny Califorina" on a sign.

_**Up in the mountains, down by the ocean! **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

Gobo clinging tightly to the side of moutain with a pick ax as Red begans to loose her grip and Wembley is in the middle of falling, dragging down their climbing rope as a very shocked looking eagle flies just below them.

_**Where? It don't matter, as long as we're goin' **_

_**Somewhere together. I've got a quarter. **_

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California! **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

The three hitching a ride on the back of a bus bumper in an attached small handmade wooden cart. The picture unfreezes and they hop out, looking upward with wide eyes and then turning to each other with sly grins. The revealed sign reads "Oaxaca Radish Festival".

_**We're gonna get outta here if we gotta ride a Greyhound bus. **_

_**Boy, we're bound to outrun the bad luck that's tailin' us!. **_

Polaroid photo snapshot:

Red, Gobo and Wembley running and laughing as they carry a giant Mexican corn god made completely out of radishes. Another photo snaps showing a huge mob of angry people with crafting tools and pitch forks following close behind them…

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California! **_

_**Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer!**_

Polaroid picture snapsot:

Red waves as she windsurfs. The picture unfreezes as she falls off the broad and slowly lifts her head out of the shallow water, only to come face to face with a platypus. Both scream and run in opposite directions.

_**Up in the mountains, down by the ocean!**_

Pollard picture snapshot:

A trail of fraggle footprints in the snow, leading to Gobo, Red, and Wembley crowded around something wearing their socking caps. The picture unfreezes and they part to reveal a fraggle snowman with shiny black pebbles for eyes and a mouth made out of sticks with tiny pine cones for hair, in one hand holding a radish and in the other, made as part it's body, a postcard with a Hawaiian sunset.

_**Where? It don't matter, as long as we're goin' **_

_**Somewhere together. I've got a quarter.**_

Polaroid picture Snapshot:

A hidden cozy fire in the woods of the snowy mountainside throws a golden glow onto the sleeping faces of the friends under a cozy heavy patchwork quilt, Red with her head snuggled on Gobo's chest, while Wembley in turn leans on her shoulder. The picture unfreezes as Red opens one eye in annoyance, quickly pushing Wembley's head away to use a snowdrift to the other side as a pillow with a yelp and soft shower of flying snow.

_**Heads, Carolina Tails, California!**_

Scene:

A slow panning shot from the boots upwards of two silly creatures on that same snowy mountain. The two twenty-something hikers, a woman and a man, stare at the figure made of snow before them. Slowly they turn to look each other in the eye in bewilderment and mouth the word 'fraggle?'.

_**O--oh, California! Carolina! California!**_

_Voice over of Wembley:._

_And that's sorta how it all started, all those years ago…and we still are to this day…exploring, I mean. If you see us, say hi! We're looking forward to meeting you…_

The scene slowly closes in on the fraggle prints in the snow, leading to the radish the snow fraggle is holding, as it's bright green top whips in the wintery breeze...

* * *

_(If you stayed in the theater long enough..._

_as sung by Mokey) _

* * *

**It's not that unusual**

_Scene: _

Mokey and Boober stand alone at the opening of a cave, suddenly Mokey grabs his hand and pulls him reluctantly into its depths.

**When everything is beautiful.**

_Scene:_

The two fraggles climbing up the side of the cave, Boober nearly falling but regaining his balance when Mokey grabs his tail.

**It's just... **

_Scene: _

They finally reach the top which is a large flat platform underneath a large gap In the ceiling, letting in the dim winter sunlight. Mokey spins happily around in a dreamy dance as it slowly begins to snow.

…**another ordinary miracle today**

**The sky knows when its time to snow,**

_Scene:_

Close up on Boober's face as he looks upward,his hat falling off.

**Don't need to teach a seed to grow. **

_Scene:_

Slowly he parts his hair revealing eyes completely made up of shiny black irises and pupils that blend seamlessly with one another, and smiling in wonder at the snowflakes landing on his muzzle.

**It's just another ordinary miracle today. **

**Life is like a gift they say…**

_Scene:_

Mokey sits with a crowd of young fraggles sitting and laying around her in a circle as she tells a story.

**Wrapped up for you everyday; **

_Scene:_

The same young fraggles dance around wearing masks as they act out the story, their storyteller chasing after them with a staff.

**Open up and find a way **

**To give some of your own.**

_Scene:_

A drop of water falls off a stagnate in that cave tracing it's path down into the lower part of Fraggle Rock.

**Isn't it remarkable? **

_Scene:_

The drop of water finally drips onto Boober's nose where he looks up from his wash.

**Like every time a rain drop falls, **

_Scene:_

Close up on a faded wooden sign with "Boober's School Of Laundry" written in overly fancy penmanship, panning outward to reveal dozens of fraggles washing clothing along with their teacher, some even doing a jig as they washed with their feet.

**It's just another ordinary miracle today. **

_Scene:_

Little Poppy races a trips over his oversized socks, picking himself up again, a postcard griped in his hand.

**Birds in winter have their fling **

**But always make it home by spring. **

_Scene:_

Cut to Mokey and Boober sitting around a fire in a cozy cave as the they reach to take the postcard from Poppy and sit to read it with him, a gray and black spotted egg can be seen between them.

**It's just another ordinary miracle today. **

Scene: Melt away to a close up on the face of a slightly older looking Poppy sleeping.

**When you wake up everyday**

_Scene:_

A drop of water lands on his nose, waking him up suddenly. He looks wide eyed and surprised but then grins as if just remembering something.

**Please don't throw your dreams away; **

_Scene:_

Poppy springs up racing down a tunnel and trips over his socks halfway though…

**Hold them close to your heart **

_Scene:_

Poppy finally reaches the cave where Mokey and Boober are sleeping soundly. Sleeping just as deeply nearby is a tiny light green baby fraggle, her even lighter mint colored hair done up in low bushy pigtails.

**'Cause we're all a part**

Scene:

Close up of the little fraggle as Poppy wakes her gently, pressing a finger to her lips to keep quiet. She smiles and coos.

**Of the ordinary miracle...**

_Scene_:

Cut to the shadowed form of Poppy with the baby riding on his back as quickly and silently young fraggles pour out from their parents sleeping holes in front and behind him, whispering excitivly.

**Ordinary miracle... **

_Scene:_

A small yellow fraggle with blue hair stops to pick up two tiny doozers in her hand, while a few other fraggle children from the line follow suit. The rest pop here and there along the pathway, gathering hidden paint cans and carrying them along. Soon, as they walk their feet are spattered with color…

**Do you want to see a miracle? **

_Scene:_

The crowd of young fraggles and doozers finally reach the main hall, only to come face to face with another group coming from the direction of the garden, they part to reveal the form of a blue bonneted gorg baby wearing a faded radish printed oneisy, all ready with paint colored hands it waves happily at them and everyone laughs.

**It seems so exceptional **

**That things just work out after all.**

_Scene:_

Just at that moment, from down another tunnel a last group arrives, In their mist are three silly creature preschoolers. Silently all the fraggles, doozers, and the gorg baby, eyeing them for a moment before motioning them to join in…

**It's just another ordinary miracle today. **

**Sun comes up and shines so bright **

**And disappears again at night.**

_Scene:_

Close up of all the children's hands as they dip into the paint cans of red, blue, and yellow. Poppy carefully lowers a doozer down to barely touch the surface of one can, handing its half covered form up to his sister, who lets it walk on her hand up to the cave wall. Quickly all the others join in, attacking the wall with their hands and bold swipes of their fingers, leaving trails of color …

**It's just another ordinary miracle today. **

**ohh ohh ohh, ohh ohhh ohh... **

_Scene:_

The great gorg baby lets out a huge yawn where in leads against the wall, where all the fraggles, doozers, and silly creatures sleep peacefully together.

**It's just another…**

...At their back the half awake ditizes dart like lazy fireflies, lighting up the mural behind them…

**ordinary...**

...and the scene of countless hand prints of all shapes and sizes, dotting the background of a painted rainbow and sun, shining over a green radish field , where stick figures with linked hands played happily together..

**..miracle… today.**

* * *

Author's End Note:

* * *

I've had that scene in my head since the very beginning of this story, and am so glad to finally be sharing it with you now. Personally, I think Mokey's singing voice suits the song even better than Sarah McLachlan's . I think Mokey and Boober and all fraggle kind deserve their happy ending...A cassette is also a bicycle part, a little like a sprocket ;) ...And if anyone is wondering, her name is Periwinkle ;) (The color, not the flower). Why Periwinkle for a green fraggle? It just seems very fraggley, I think...


End file.
